Last week, the crook and I were seated together at a bar mitzvah. He washed for bread, and found the salt was out of reach. A man with manners would have gestured for the salt, or allowed himself to take a nibble from the bread without salting it. Not our crook. Unwilling to forgo an opportunity to look frum - or perhaps so deeply in the grips of his own corruption that he thought what he was doing made sense - our crook dipped his bread - three times! - into the communal pickle plate.I take offense, not merely at his bad manners or at his criminal activity, but at howfrumkeit is allowed to answer for all sins. Its the triumph of style over substance. He looks frum - he dipped his bread - but via something disgusting.

Firstly, the fellow should have just said "Please pass the salt." This is perfectly justified halachically. The three times is apparently some kabbalisticminhag. It is not that this fellow double-dipped, in that after putting it to his mouth, he dipped again. And I suppose this is subjective and culturally-based. I would not have been disgusted or bothered by this dipping bread into the communal pickle plate.
.

Autism can be diagnosed with a fifteen-minute brain scan. But it doesn't live up to the hype. Read inside.
.

A greater number of girls in the US are reaching puberty earlier. Like, at seven. This could well have halachic repercussions.
.

In Ramapo, because of misbehavior in previous years from the folks running the kappores shlugging, the Health commissioner wants to scrutinize it before the event.
.

Satmar says living in Israel is forbidden. But which Satmar? Even Neturei Karta live in Israel.
.

2 comments:

Joe in Australia
said...

If this man - surely there's no need to refer to him as "the crook" - acted the way I've seen others do, he dipped the bread three times in succession before placing it in his mouth, and did not dip it subsequently. I once asked someone about this custom. Apparently it's "kabbala". So now you know as much as I do.

LinkWithin

Subscribe To

Some feeds

Criticism Isn’t Always Based on Bigotry
-
Rabbi Yaakov Menken
One of the things I have noticed over the years is that people who strongly
identify with a given Hashkafa, cannot abide criticism from ...

Overheard: What do you call that again?
-
Older fellow with glasses: I see that book in your taliis bag, called "Forgiveness". What is it about? New Age Guy: It is about how you have to forgive all t...

Recent Posts

YESHIVA WORLD NEWS

Followers

about

parshablog is published by (rabbi) josh waxman (joshwaxman [at] yahoo [dot] com), a grad student in Revel, a grad student in a Phd program in computer science at CUNY. i recently received semicha from RIETS. this blog is devoted to parsha as well as whatever it is i am currently learning.